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LBI’s Fishing Report – Sept 1st

Time flies when you are having fun!  So far this summer has been a great one. We had some good weather and good fishing. Hopefully everyone enjoys this Labor Day Weekend and the late summer fishing. We have a nice weekend ahead with conditions looking prime. Let’s go fishing! Here’s the Fishing Report Update for the Long Beach Island Area on Labor Day Weekend.

Before diving into the fishing report I must first share a couple fishing events…

Save The Dates!

This Saturday Sept 4th is the 2nd Annual “Rock The Dock” Fluke Tournament – Registration is live now online at www.njfishingclub.com/rockthedock. For the full rules and details, click here. Last year’s inaugural event was a success and it was built upon and made even better this year having a dual gun shot start (conveniently having one on the north end and one on the south end) and weigh ins via water or land at The Boatyard right on the LBI Causeway. This tournament is open to boat anglers, kayak anglers, surf/land based AND there’s spots open with Captain Sammy on the Mary M charter boat out of Barnegat Light. Sammy is always on the fish and last year Jake Bayak got the second place overall heaviest fluke as well as the Mary M Calcutta. For 2021 results… www.njfishingclub.com/rock-the-dock-results.

The 68th LBI Fall Classic Surf Fishing Tournament kicks off October 8th and runs to December 11th. Registration has begun, $30. Stop by and sign up today!

LBI Fishing Report Details

Warm water and great weather coupled with a large variety of target species from both the beach or boat makes late summer one of the best times to fish the waters of LBI. Here’s what’s happening on and around Long Beach Island.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

To kick off the month of September, the LBI Surf Temp is 73º as per the Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol.

In recent days on the surf fluke, kingfish and spot as well as at times blues offered fun fishing for surf anglers. With the warm clean water surf anglers could see a couple croakers, puppy drum and possibly a pompano. A variety is available to catch fishing a small hooked hi/lo rig baited with live bloodworms, live sand fleas, Fish Bites or DynaBait.

Steve George shared that he had some sand eels on the beach when fluke fishing Monday. It’s not a bad idea to start fishing “fall style” teasers to match the slender baits!

With the warm surf temps there’s also rays and sharks. All summer long they are cruising the Jersey Shore but right now could be the peak. There’s black tips, spinners, sandbars, sand tigers and yesterday we heard of a tiger shark (NOT sand tiger) which caught and released off the Sea Isla beach.

Barnegat Bay Fishing Report

The local waters have an abundance of bait and the Mullet Run is right around the corner!

Back bay anglers are still catching good numbers of fluke drifting the main channels working out towards the Inlet. Blowfishing is and has been great. Blow toads offer great light tackle fun on the water and they are good eats too. Anchor up in the open Barnegat Bay and put down a clam chum log. Fish a simple small hook rig, baited with clam, squid or our favorite because it stays on the hook great… Fish Bites! Don’t hesitate to thread on a piece of Fish Bites and then top off with a piece of clam, squid or a morsel of Gulp. Gotta save those short bit off baits for this purpose.

Weakfish are here in good numbers and if you know when and where to look they have been for most of the summer. This is the time when shrimping weakies is a ton of fun! Land based anglers are catching under the lights at night.

This time of year offers some of the best crabbing and it is also a great time to go clamming!

Barnegat Inlet Jetty Fishing Report

All summer the Jetty offers great fishing opportunities! Casting small plugs and jigs you’ll find cocktail (1-3# class) bluefish and possibly some hardtail species like Spanish mackerel, bonita and albies. Fishing baited rigs you’ll catch tog and the occasional triggerfish and sheepshead. There’s always resident striped bass roaming too. There’s a lot of bait in and around the inlet almost daily. As the days get shorter and the water cools expect to see even more exiting the bay. Then we should see more activity with striped bass and sometimes a couple larger blues. Later in September and October offer great fun fishing for these two species as well as TOG!

Central NJ Ocean Fishing Report

Inshore / Near Shore Fishing: Ocean fluke fishing has been good and it should remain good right to the end of the season, Sept 27th. Reports from the reef sites as well as wrecks and open bottom have been good. Action has been productive on the open bottom off of Island Beach State Park and LBI, 30-50′ (some are catching drifting in closer to the beach too) fishing the lumps and old clam beds that striped bass anglers fish all fall. The local party boat, Miss Barnegat Light has had happy customers on recent trips with good catches of fluke and some days mackerel in the mix. The past two days they reported, “Really good day of fluking. Everyone went home with dinner.” And. “Great day fluking. Quit wishin’ and go fishin’!” They are sailing right now but after Labor Day Weekend they will be shifting gears to tuna canyon trips so be sure to call the boat to confirm their schedule.

Remember NJ Black Sea Bass Fishing is closed as of Sept 1.

Today we got a delivery of fresh bunker and our local boat shared he saw some foamers on the way in. That’s right… hardtails hammering bait pods. He said were albies and bonita. Both species have been around these parts as well as Spanish mackerel. There’s a surprisingly strong showing of dorado (mahi mahi) around the inshore waters. We got some mahi reports from from fluke anglers fishing the reefs.

Midshore / Offshore Fishing: Now’s a great time to be offshore. With the summer waning down there’s less boats now than during the heat of July and August. And fishing at times has been really good. We’ve heard some good catch reports of yellowfin, bluefin, swordfish and tilefish. Reports of both day troll and night chunk as well as deep drop action both day and night. Harry on the Parrot Dice reported on his last trip he chunked up some yellowfin and also caught a small but legal (keeper size) sword. Today we got a report from Capt Mark on the Bluerunner, “Found some yellowfin on the troll, chunk and jig. Then added a 75″ bigeye to finish off the trip. Also had some mahi.” Word is the Magictail 3oz HooMagic Heads did the pretty work and then the crew down down and down the dirty work.

Mahi seem to be everywhere and some big ones too! A nice one was weighed in by Austin Pounds on Monday. There’s a good showing of wahoo. Most are catching them by accident but there are some high speed trollers focusing on them.

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Author: FishHead.Greg

A Long Beach Island native with life long experience fishing and navigating the local waters, Greg is a distinguished Master Captain (the highest qualified operator license), holding a US Coast Guard Masters 50T Near Coastal License with Towing Endorsement. Raised in and now managing his family's bait and tackle business, Fishermans Headquarters (Since 1962, The Saltwater Fishing Bait & Tackle Experts) Greg is daily immersed in fishing. He is the Chief Contributor of FishingLBI.com (Long Beach Island's best fishing report blog) as well as the Admin for the shop's social media pages (on Instagram and Facebook). Be sure to follow!

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